DISCOVERY GOLF

A college golf team's tragedy and the search for meaning‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

By Max Adler August 29, 2022

Golf's saddest story
A college golf team's tragedy and the search for meaning

Perhaps you remember the gruesome newsflash back in March: An accident in Texas involving the van of a collegiate golf team and another vehicle with a man and his 13-year-old son. Nine people dead. Initial confusion and incorrect speculation that the boy had been driving the pickup. It's possible to become desensitized to events like this, bombarded as we are by the daily flow of the world's tragedies in our hyper-connected digital age. Maybe just as many bad things have always happened, but we heard about them less.

As much as it can feel better, right even, to look away and leave families alone with their grief, it is also important to honor lives. New York Times best-selling author Jeff Pearlman calls "Shattered," his 4,000-word feature about the University of the Southwest golf team wreck that appears in the September Issue of Golf Digest, "the hardest piece I've ever worked on".

Golf Digest Managing Editor Alan Pittman contacted Pearlman to take on this punishing assignment—driving thousands of miles across Texas and Canada to sit across from one set of parents after another in forlorn living rooms—because of his care and delicacy in writing about another car crash for Sports illustrated, a fatal one caused by former Las Vegas Raiders wide receiver Henry Ruggs III. Initially, Pearlman told us no. Calamity is not his thing. Emotionally, he was not ready to take such a thing on again.

At some point, Pearlman changed his mind, though this reluctance surfaced in his initial outreach to sources. "I told them, this is not that important. Don't talk to me if you don't want to. It's just a magazine story."

Of course, Pearlman bravely discovered—rediscovered—what we all know deep down. When humans are asked about the lowest point of their lives, sometimes you find they want to talk. In telling there's a chance to carry on the memory of someone they loved, and a way to work through the heartbreak.

The six collegiate golfers, the golf coach, and the father and his son are all gone. As gut-wrenching as it is to read, there is some good that will come from this.

Max Adler, Editorial Director

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